Grand Duke Alexis arrived and proceeded at once to the legation, where he was welcomed by Madame de Catacazy, elegant and charming in a gown of gold silk. As the Grand Duke entered the legation, Madame met him with a touch of his native traditional courtesy—in the gold salver on which was placed a round loaf of black bread surmounted by a golden salt cellar. The Prince took the uninviting loaf, broke it, and tasted it, in accordance with the Russian custom. The Grand Duke was cordially welcomed at the White House, and Monsieur de Catacazy treated with corresponding coldness.
Sumner’s antipathy to the President and Secretary Hamilton Fish, to both of whom he had been discourteous, with his subsequent refusal to speak to either, brought about his removal as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate. In less than two months, all difficulties were settled and the commissioners made a satisfactory treaty and returned. It stipulated that points at issue be submitted to a tribunal of arbitration composed of five members of different nationalities to sit at Geneva. In December, 1871, the tribunal met and each party to the dispute filed its statements. Bancroft Davis represented the United States, and William E. Evarts, Caleb Cushing, and Morrison R. Waite were the American counsel.
When the question of damages was broached, a great hubbub followed in England, instigated by the opposition party to the government. The English press demanded that negotiations cease unless the claims of the United States were withdrawn, and naturally the situation became tense and critical. The American counsel maintained that the British government had agreed to submit points of dispute to arbitration, and a treaty had been made and accepted by the two nations to this effect. Feeling became so bitter in England that the two countries came near to war, and our own State Department was put to a severe test. Secretary Fish displayed most able diplomacy in that he yielded nothing of American national dignity and yet avoided false moves likely to irritate and complicate. Finally, the arbitrators exercised their right to decide that the claims were out of court and in their hands. Thus, neither nation needed to abandon its position, as neither was consulted. The arbitrators awarded damages to the United States to the amount of $15,500,000 in gold for the direct injury inflicted by the Alabama and her consorts. England expressed due and proper regret, a few more words or clauses were added to the code of international law between the two countries, and peace and good feeling banished the threatening war clouds.
The winter of 1871 was the scene of especial suffrage activity in the National Capital, and a convention of all of the principal leaders of the movement was held in Lincoln Hall, Ninth and D streets, with such celebrated women on the platform at the various sessions as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Grace Greenwood, Phœbe Couzens, Pauline Davis, Susan B. Anthony, Josephine Griffing, Rachel Moore Townsend, Reverend Olympia Brown, Isabelle Beecher Hooker, Charlotte Wilbour, Jocelyn Gage, and many others. Speeches, conferences, and committee hearings brought the cause of Woman Suffrage very prominently to the attention of the general public, and in Congress, one of the most notable of these gatherings was that held on January 11, 1871. Those versed in the early struggles for the enfranchisement of women give to Victoria Woodhull the credit of the discovery that, under the rulings of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution of the United States, women were entitled to the ballot; and in order that these heretofore undetected points might be brought to the attention of the legislators, arrangements were perfected for her presentation of a printed memorial to the Judiciary Committees of the two Houses of Congress on January 11, 1871.
Victoria Woodhull is of especial interest because she was the first woman ever to be nominated for the Presidency of the United States, being the choice of the Equal Rights Party in 1872. Mrs. Woodhull, a native of Homer, Ohio, born in 1838, is at present living in England. Her career was interesting in 1870. She opened a bank on Wall Street, New York City, where her transactions were spectacular. She was also associated with Tennessee Claflin (Lady Cook) in the publication of Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly. After her defeat of election and her second marriage in 1876, she abandoned politics and likewise the United States, making her home abroad. Her editorial interests continue in the publication of the Humanitarian Magazine in London.
Her appearance before the Committee of Congress created much comment, owing to her unusual costume, which the two members of the Woodhull-Claflin firm had adopted. This dress consisted of a so-called “business suit” made of dark blue cloth, skimpy in the skirt, with a basque or jacket finished off with mannish coat tails. A severely plain hat with steeple crown topping clipped hair gave a masculine appearance not regarded with favour by the conservative element.
As the presentation of the memorial was Mrs. Woodhull’s first attempt at public speaking, she read from the printed page.
While the advocates of the ballot for women were straining every effort to put forth plausible and convincing argument to win adherents to their cherished dream, another group of women were equally energetic in preventing the adoption of a suffrage amendment. They became so anxious over the apparent advantages being gained by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and their cohorts, that they, too, formulated a pretentious document which was an opposing petition, and to it they secured the signatures of hundreds of women who preferred to follow the old order of things and leave the voting privilege in the hands of men.
The opposing petition closed with the following appeal:
“Should the person receiving this approve of the object in view, his or her aid is respectfully requested to obtain signatures to the annexed petition, which may, after having been signed, be returned to either of the following persons: Mrs. Gen. W. T. Sherman, Mrs. John A. Dahlgren, Mrs. Jacob D. Cox, Mrs. Joseph Henry, Mrs. Rev. Dr. Butler, Mrs. Rev. Rankin, Mrs. Rev. Dr. Boynton, Mrs. Rev. Dr. Samson, Mrs. B. B. French, Miss Jennie Carroll, Mrs. C. V. Morris, Mrs. Hugh McCulloch, all of Washington, D. C.; Mrs. Senator Sherman, Mansfield, Ohio; Mrs. Senator Scott, Huntington, Pa.; Mrs. Senator Corbet, Portland, Ore.; Mrs. Senator Edmunds, Burlington, Vt.; Mrs. Luke E. Poland, St. Johnsbury, Vt.; Mrs. Samuel J. Randall, Philadelphia, Pa.; Mrs. Catherine E. Beecher, 69 West Thirty-eighth Street, New York City.”